


Happy birthday to those we've lost?

by BocchanLucifer (orphan_account)



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Ann is a literal blessing on this earth, Explicit Language, Grief/Mourning, Happy Ending, Healing, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, OCD, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Requited Unrequited Love, depictions of panic attacks, everybody needs so much therapy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2019-06-02
Packaged: 2020-04-06 04:35:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19055347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/BocchanLucifer
Summary: Every year it was the same, Akira and Ann would celebrate Goro's birthday post mortem with cake, featherman, and crying.Until the year that they didn't, that is. This year isn't going by routine, it would seem. Change can't always be bad, can it?





	1. Ghost from the past

**Author's Note:**

> The depictions of mental illness presented below are based off of my own personal experience with having the listed conditions, no one singular experience with particular mental illnesses is exactly the same, and i've tried to go with a more lite.ver of my own experiences to use with these characters. Just because I have vivid and violent rash reactions over a decade still after a traumatic experience, doesn't mean someone else won't have recovered 'further' than me with the same amount of help.
> 
> My therapist told me to think of mental illness and relapses as a circle, and that it won't go away, but you can only try to make the circle a little bigger each time, 
> 
> I wanted to write something for Goro's birthday because Proof of Justice gave me so much inspiration, but instead of something purely sweet I had to go and rub my angsty little hands all over it. But I promise the ending is a lot happier!  
> I'll hopefully have the second half posted tomorrow.

* * *

 

June 2nd, was quite frankly, not a great day for Akira to put it very lightly. It had been five years, but he still struggled to accept that Akechi was gone from this world. It might not have been the day he died too soon, but it was a day that  Akira was left wishing he could have spent with the late detective at least just once. Just once, a single day that the raven wished he could have been there the most for. The week leading up to that day he was usually plagued with endless scenarios what ifs in his head, fragments of made up memories that could have been.

 

    Would things have gone differently? If Akira could have shown Akechi what it meant to feel wanted by friends, would he still be here? Five years, four years of therapy, and countless nights where the death of the detective still weighed as heavily on his shoulders as it did the night that it happened. Akira had accepted that he would never see the brunette again, but it didn’t stop being painful. Was it fucked up to mourn the death and celebrate the birthday of the man who once tried to kill you? Even if you could no longer remember what was simply a delusion you convinced yourself was fact, or what was a reality you vehemently denied?

 

    Akira Kurusu had returned to Tokyo just one year after he had left, highschool completed and an acceptance letter to the Japan college of Social work in Kiyose, Tokyo. He had managed to get an apartment together with Ann, bless her soul. Ann was willing to help him stay close to his college as her own commute was shorter that way, working in Ikebukuro. They had hoped Ryuji would join them, but he was in a sports medicine program in a university on the other end of Tokyo. At least Ryuji had the company of Mishima. They still got together when they could.

 

    Living with Ann was one of the best things keeping him grounded in reality these days, she frequently had Shiho over and the three of them would just hang out, talking about other days at Shujin, days that hadn’t involved the phantom thieves. Ann was a good friend, Akechi’s death left its mark on her as well. Apparently the two had been decent friends in the short time that the detective had been part of the team, he would never have guessed it, considering apparently most of it was the two communicating through text chats. But it was enough that she didn’t protest the small memorial he had set in the living room.

 

It was a cropped photo from when they had taken a selfie together at the Jazz bar. It was dark, grainy, and you could see a third of Akira’s body in the photo, but it was the only photo evidence he’d had that Akechi ever existed. The framed photo sat on a side table, adorned by the traditional black and white ribbons, a box wrapped in decorative paper sat perpetually in front of it, always there. A small incense cup on one side and a coffee cup from Leblanc on the other. It had been shortly after Akechi had passed, Akira had found the words “proof of justice” in the detectives handwriting in an old crossword puzzle at Leblanc. Akira had spent the day in the city trying to foolishly decipher the last message he’d ever have from Akechi, and eventually, found it in the window of a toy store.

 

    It was a toy gun from some sentai show, well made and looked like something Futaba would own more than Akechi at first. But it fit him, perfectly. Akira had cried on the spot, the memories combined with learning more about his once friend too painful. It had been Ann who bought it, she’d brought it home one day soon after. She hadn’t even known about the message in the crossword puzzle, she had seen the toy and it had simply reminded her to much of the detective to leave it there in the window of that store. The toy had stayed in a closet somewhere in Ann’s closet after that, too painful for either to look at or bring up.

 

    The first June 2nd Akira and Ann had moved in together, she had come into the living room carrying a wrapped box, and placed it on the small memorial, smiling sadly. Akira didn’t need to ask to know what was under that wrapping.

 

    “Happy birthday, Goro.” They both cried into each others arms, the two sleeping heavily that night.

For four years after that, every year on Akechi’s birthday they would place a small cake slice plate on the gift, order out, and spend the rest of the night watching old featherman re-runs no matter what. Both of them taking the day off from work months ahead of time every year.

* * *

   

 

    It was a therapy day, Ann had forgotten to reschedule so of course she had to go, she couldn’t afford to eat the missed appointment fee these days. Thankfully it was earlier in the day, and wouldn’t interrupt the usual flow too much. She didn’t really know what to talk about today especially, so it’d probably just be another laid back session of nonsense. Still, it comforted her, after everything that had happened those years back. Therapy had definitely helped to be able to tell someone everything that had happened, even if it was all under the guise of being dreams, twisting the story to fit with the real world, seeing as no one would believe anything about a cognitive one. ‘ _I hope Akira isn’t disappointed I wasn’t in the apartment this morning.._ ’

 

Ann was preoccupied with her phone when the previous patient had exited the inner office. Should would have been content to ignore the existence of everyone else in this building if it hadn’t been for that voice.

 

“I’ll see you next week, Dr. Yumikawa!” That _voice_. That unmistakable voice. Ann was going to have a fucking stroke, not literally, but she was going to fucking shit and again not literally. Her phone dropped to the ground, slipping out of her grasp with how fast she stood, whipping the direction of what she refused to believe with her own eyes. The phone made an ugly shattering sound as it hit the floor corner first. _Fuck it, fuck that phone, it didn’t matter right now._

 

“Goro…?” Overwrought blue bore into a petrified burgundy.

* * *

 

Ann wasn’t home when he woke up, it was different. Different is bad, no, it’s not, but it is? It wasn’t welcome, it wasn’t routine. Breathe in, breathe out, submerge your face in ice cold water and count to ten. Come up, breathe, repeat until life doesn’t feel like a string about to snap in your head. Akira had already dragged himself into the bathroom, face in a sink full of cold water before he was even consciously aware of the panic putting his heart in a tourniquette. Of the violent irrational compulsions flashing through his head in vivid high definition. He felt pathetic when this happened, there was no reason to react so strongly to change, Akira knew this. Yet it still happened. But that was fine, this was fine.  It wasn’t fine, but he would live.

 

Another deep breath, already drying off his face after slowing his heart rate back to something more humanly acceptable. His therapist had taught him ways to help calm his racing heart during panic in an emergency, so he’d be able to cope better. In this case, it was ripping open the medicine cabinet and begrudgingly popping a pill free from it’s bubble pack on the tiny shelf.    The tiny Alprazolam popping free from it’s foil and plastic prison once more to calm the ever loving fuck out of one Akira Kurusu. He swallowed it dry, watching his hands shake slightly.

 

“Right...I should. I should check to see if Ann left me a note or anything. Yeah. Yeah..” Deep breath, he ran fingers through his hair, exhaling deeply. Music. Music would help.

 

“Alexa, play Joker’s playlist” Soft melodies filled the apartment while Akira ventured from the bathroom into the living room. Sure enough there was a note written on cute stationery paper taped to the front door. ‘ _Ah, she forgot to reschedule an appointment.._ ’ The situation that Ann was currently in therapy while he was here, in the midst of an active state of calming panic brought a bubbling of laughter to his chapped lips. It was funny sort of, maybe? Akira wasn’t so sure after the initial laughter burst from him. A sigh, he turned to look at Akechi’s memorial photo on the side table and smiled sadly.

 

“Happy birthday Goro, do you know what kind of cake you want this year…? I’ll go to your favourite bakery in shibuya again and we’ll pick something out.”

 

* * *

 

Half of a decade, that was how long one Goro Akechi had managed to stay under the radar and avoid anything dealing with his own sordid past. Unsure of how he managed to survive, he had woken up in the middle of a sidewalk in shibuya just after midnight on Christmas day. A bystander had called an ambulance, Akechi not escaping unscathed it seemed. His brain had been still too frazzled for lack of a better word from using Loki’s psychotic break powers on himself. From there he had learned three important facts.

 

  1. Akira kept his promise.
  2. Nobody remembered who the fuck he was, it was though he had never existed. They didn’t remember the phantom thieves, either.
  3. You can’t admit or atone for crimes that no one remembers happening in the first place.



 

Ah, he supposed there was also a fourth, he was blind in his right eye, but that fact took the back burner to everything else at that moment in time. Akechi hadn’t wanted to live with himself for all that he had done. His addled mind amplifying every horrible urge and flash back that plagued his cursed second chance at life. But five years is a long time. It had taken a full year to be released from that hospital, all of his personal assets, storage unit, and bank account still in tact, much to his relief. The brunette hadn’t been able to say the same for his apartment unfortunately. Oh well.

 

Another year, and he gave up on trying to understand how and why he lived, his doctor at the hospital had convinced him to seek mental counseling, for whatever it was worth he supposed. It helped somewhat, the crushing weight of absolutely everything couldn’t just be encompassed in a single year in inpatient, afterall. He was 23 now, still polite to a fault, but aggression leaked through more easily. Akechi had grown his hair out more, it reached his mid back, tied into a neat perfect low ponytail that even Cher herself would be jealous of. He had decided that taking care of the long hair was something that helped, whether that was true or just pure bullshit remained to be determined.

 

But through it all he managed to pick up the pieces of his life bit by bit against all of the bitterness and toxic sludge that still preyed on his mind. The only reason he kept living, if he could not atone for his misdeeds in death or the system, then he’d have to stay alive as punishment instead. It seemed fitting for someone like him, who had nothing. Ah, he’d started to write as well, worked his way up to a mid size publisher for fantasy novels under a pseudonym. It paid the bills. From there the next two years of his life passed monotonously, content to rot in his own solitude outside of what had become mandated counseling via a publisher who cared too much for her own good.

 

At least, he had hoped to simply continue on as he had for the past few years, until he came face to face with one of the people he never thought he’d have the displeasure to run into again, let alone remember he ever existed. It was like time had slowed to a crawl, and fear and anxiety stuck both their dual swords into his heart and lungs, freezing him to his current spot halfway out of his therapists door.  Looking dead into the turmoil filled blue eyes of Ann Takamaki.

 

“Goro..?” He ran. He absolutely bolted, no, no, no it wasn’t fucking happening. But apparently Takamaki had thought otherwise, as she’d abandoned the therapists waiting room to chase after him. How does she run so fast in high heeled combat boots!? He could hear her scream out his name again, Akechi didn’t pay attention, though he should have. The brunette too much in the throes of fight or flight, currently flight, to notice he had just run into the wall of the train station.  When did he get here? Had she been chasing him for several blocks? This woman was more intimidating than he ever remembered.

 

“Goro!!” Arms catching him as he bounced off the wall he’d collided with caught his fall, gripping around him like a steel vice. It was too tight, he couldn’t breathe. Or could he? He couldn’t tell everything was happening so very much and he really wished it wouldn't oh she’s talking again why is his shoulder and his face wet? Akechi didn’t have time to think much more of it before his vision went black and the din of the world around him shut off like an old box tv.

 


	2. Ann no Ann yes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don't take other people's medication. Only take what you are prescribed as directed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops I lied there was too much to fit in just two parts, so theres gonna need to be a third chapter.  
> So here's some Ann/Goro friendship.

* * *

 

If dirty delusions are paid for by dirty money, then what are you left with when all the dirty money has been swept away? Is all that remains is an empty emotional bank account? Do you continue to live a fantasy, hemorrhaging your own mental health to maintain your personal sense of normalcy? There’s no salvation to be had with this. You become addicted to the highs brought by emotional peaks, the rush it brings your brain is a fleeting high better than any opioid. You’ll manipulate people to get it. Larger and larger still, that emotional debt will grow.

 

Reality is a bitch and false complacency is an unpaid electric bill. Eventually, you’ll be cut off and left to face the ugly truths of the world in front of you. A landlord evicting you into an ice bath in the arctic.  Or at the very least that’s what it felt like, getting what could only be described as full body tackled by the blonde woman currently sobbing into his shoulder. A previous fact he had convinced himself was real shattered in an instant and replaced with an updated notation in the compendium of Akechi’s mind.

 

~~No one remembers that I ever existed~~ , he would like to ask the court to strike that statement from the record and replace it with ‘ _God is cruel and has left possibly only people i’ve hurt to remember my existence_ ’  Yes, that sounded right. Somewhere between this revelation and the world turning black, he had blacked out, and Ann’s sobbing slowly becoming louder to his senses. Light flooded his left eyes and he grunted, wincing at the concept of existence. Everything felt like tv static. The warmth embracing him left him and he nearly gave chase to it simply out of instinct. The cold feeling left with him helping the brunettes senses come to finally.

 

“ _Goro_! Oh thank god you’re awake I was five minutes away from getting help if you didn’t come to..” Ann’s gentle hands swept through Akechi’s hair. “People are starting to stare, come on, we have to move!” Suddenly his entire weight was being lifted from the ground. Akechi didn’t have the processing power to both respond to the verbal communication and follow the blonde woman holding his wrist in a vice grip. The gears were starting to turn though, just, slowly. Was this paramnesia? Was he mistaking dream for waking consciousness again?  No, Ann’s grip hurt, a lot. So that was definitely out of the proverbial window. He could manage to internalize his rising levels of panic to get through this however, he was sure of it.

 

It had taken a few minutes, but Ann had found a spot to sit the both of them down, it was the back of some diner, in the odd time after the breakfast rush, but before lunch. It was sparsely populated, but that didn’t mean he didn’t still appreciate the gesture of locating them to the furthest empty table. Akechi’s body was practically on auto pilot right now, he would for certain break down later on, when he got home. If that would even happen or if Ann would simply murder him in a back alley after all this for everything he had done. Oh if only. Death sounded much preferable to whatever this was right now.

 

“Goro, you’re mumbling, come on drink something you’ll feel better..” The brunette hummed in agreement, taking the glass of water held out to him with a small ‘thank you’. It did feel better, immensely so. When had a waiter come and given them water? He was more out of it than he thought. Oh,there were hands on his face. “I’m sorry, i’m listening.”

 

Ann frowned, brows furrowed in worry. She let go of his face once certain he wasn’t going off to lala land again anytime soon and sat back against the chair. Finally exhaling a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding in, eyes still red from crying though her cheeks had lost some of the red. Akechi focused on her nose to avoid eye contact.

 

“So..” She bit her lip, unsure of how to start now that she had actually gotten this far.

 

“So..You..You remember me?” It was barely audible, but she heard it clearly and nodded. A bright smile bloomed on her face. “Goro, like of course I remember you! We all do, you’re like, ingrained into our cognitions and stuff get it? Are you okay to talk though? You look kinda totally pale?”  The blonde started fussing with the touch screen on the end of the table, a finger on her bottom lip in contemplation of whatever she was looking at. “You like fries right? They just started serving lunch, i’ll pay!” The screen made a few noises and Ann smiled again. “There! I got us something to eat, and I won’t take no for an answer okay? So just like, breathe, Goro..”

 

Akechi followed her direction, taking a few deep breaths, the static grinding at his brain clearly up slowly. Suddenly there was a hand rubbing circles into his palm, the physical contact making his senses feel more real and attached. A small smile finally tugged at his face, watching Ann’s hand with his one good eye. “Right, right..” A chuckle. “I’d be a fool to think I could run from you after all, am I correct?”

 

She laughed, nodding at him. “You’re damn right, you’re under citizens arrest, detective.”

 

He flinched, it didn’t feel right to be called that anymore. “I’m afraid i’m no detective, Ann.. Though trust me when I say your joke isn’t lost on me. Ah, I’m sorry for earlier.”

 

Ann shook her head. “No you’re not. But that’s okay, i’m sure like in different circumstances, I might have done the same thing. I’m sure this is really uh, overwhelming and stuff. Honestly i’m having a hard time keeping myself together right now.” She let go of his hand in favor of clasping both her hands over his own, squeezing reassuringly. “It’s been five years, Goro.” Tears threatened to spill from her eyes once more, a tight hard lump in the back of her throat and voice breaking. She was trying so hard to hold it all together in favor of Goro’s own comfort. “Wh-what happened to you, Goro?”

 

Akechi’s body felt like it was on autopilot, he pulled his hands away from Ann’s own and moved his chair closer to her, hesitantly bringing her into an embrace that she eagerly reciprocated. They were silent for a few moments, both of her hands occasionally just clenching a little tighter at the others sides. The two broke away when their food came a moment later, the waiter reading the situation enough to place their food down with a quiet instruction to just use the touch screen when they were done or if they needed anything. Akechi nodded, turning his attention back to the woman in front of him, reaching out and gripping onto one of her hands, lacing their fingers together.

 

“To be honest, I don’t really remember..Everything was dark for awhile, and then there was a blue light just before i regained consciousness in the snow in Shibuya square. Hardly sounds believable doesn’t it?” He smiled sadly, it was his turn to rub gentle reassuring circles in the back of Ann’s hand. Physical contact seemed to be the only thing keeping the two grounded in reality enough to talk about this.

 

Ann looked like she was in thought for a moment, absently eating a few fries during. “I mean like, considering everything else that, you know, happened?  Yeah, Goro, it’s absolutely believable. Sense kinda doesn’t seem to apply to any of us after all, right?” A nervous laugh broke through the tense atmosphere between them. Goro joining in halfway and they just sat there giggling their nerves out before finally eating proper.

* * *

 

 

It was two hours later when the two finally had both calmed themselves enough to function so to speak, having eaten and gotten some of the more awkward questions out of the way. Ann avoiding certain topics, telling him she would prefer he wait on that. So that he wasn’t forced to explain himself multiple times, and because her apartment was probably a better place to talk about strictly metaverse topics without a public audience. It wasn’t until they stopped at the door and Ann was fishing for her keys that Goro had the sense to bring up something that had been stabbing at his head the whole walk back.

 

“You said you didn’t want me to need to explain more than once? Are you implying i’ll be seeing another of you today?” The door clicked open, Ann ushered him in and the two removed their shoes.

 

“Oh, that. Yeah..Goro, I’m like really sorry to do this but. I live with Akira.” She stood straight, holding her boots in her hands, worrying at her bottom lip and looking to the floor. “I didn’t think you’d agree to come back if you knew..I know this is all really a lot. But, please, Goro. He needs to see you.” She smiled at him, the sadness in her yes betraying her facial expression as she watched his expression change to one akin to a deer caught in headlights. “Plus, you know i'm totally the shittiest liar slash actor in the world, right?”

 

Oh no, oh no oh no oh no. He was absolutely five hundred percent certified verified fda approved not ready for THAT. It was one thing to reconnect with Ann, they hadn’t had any super deep strings attached to one another those years back. Akira..he was a different story. He must have started breathing too fast because Ann was on him like a mother hen, holding his hands and whispering caring directions into his ear. Was she a fucking witch? How did she know exactly how to deal with his bullshit? They hadn’t seen each other in over five years, but here she was leading him to sit down on a couch, leading him to count backwards from ten, to focus on her voice.

 

He didn’t deserve her kindness, he didn’t deserve her understanding, how could she stand the sight of him after everything that had happened? The brunettes felt her reaching into his pocket at some point, and a small cut out section of blister pack was in his hands, and a bottle of some kind of drink on his lap. He couldn’t think, but he could, couldn’t he? Her nails were nice.

 

“Your nails are nice.” You were supposed to keep that in your head. The blister pack section was popped open and ingested with haste. She was smiling at him with the patience a mother would have with a child trying to say their first word. Wait, he didn’t carry medication with him. What the fuck? “Did you just poison me..?”

 

Ann had his phone, oh, so that's what she had been pulling from his pocket. The blonde laughed from deep in her chest, genuine amusement. “ Goro, no! No no, you’re safe. I uh, I kinda sorta gave you something from the medicine cabinet. It’s a really small dose? Akira uses it during attacks.” Oh, of course Akira would have been left fucked up just like him, and half of that was surely his fault in one way or another. Great. Wait, he took someone else's medication?

 

He shouted at her, clearly displeased if not a little distraught. Okay maybe thankful too but that would only encourage her behavior. “Ann that’s dangerous and illegal! What the fuck!?” All he got in response was a half hearted shrug, suddenly not quite sure what to call the expression on his own face he was sure he was making, but it he hoped it expressed his full exasperation with the blonde. “Ann.”

 

“Goro.” She was using his phone, right, that.

 

“We’ll come back to what you just did, i’m not done with you. What are you doing with my phone and how did you unlock it?” He leaned back, rubbing at his forehead and took a deep breath, right, calming down. Calming down, but Akira. Yes, Akira, fuck. Akechi didn’t need the arrow currently feeling like it was shooting through his heart and turning into a squeezing claw. A demon was surely grasping around his throat, but not as hard as it should have been. Exposure therapy had not exactly been top of the list in his treatment plan. Not that one Ann Takamaki seemed to give a shit about.

 

Ann handed him back his phone. “I pushed your thumb on the thing while you were astral projecting into my living room, I left mine at the doctor's office, sorry.  I had to let Akira know I lost my phone.” She held up her hand just as he had gotten the first syllable of protest from his mouth. “I didn’t say it was your phone or even mention you. Don’t worry. I don't think he'll be back for awhile anyway I sent him on an extra errand.”

 

Ann sighed, cracking her knuckles and sitting on the couch next to Goro in the most unlady like way possible. “I don’t think I can tell him you’re here..I mean, I don’t know how he’ll react but I know he’s just like you in levels of dumbass.” He frowned, she flicked his nose. Ow. “You know as well as me that if this situation was reversed that you’d avoid coming back here in a fit of like, irrational panic or whatever big fancy medical term it is.” “It-” “Shut up Goro i’m not done.” It was almost comical how quickly he shut his mouth. She laughed, there had been a lot of that today so far, it felt nice.

 

“I know..you’re probably thinking that he’ll hate you right? That frown totally tell me that i’m right you know. You suck at hiding your thoughts, Go-chan”

 

“Go-chan?” His thigh was smacked. “Deal with it loser” “Ah..”

 

She stood up and directed his attention to the side table next to her end of the couch, where he could see the side profile of the memorial. “You should know.. He never got over your death, Goro. Akira, that is. It crushed him. He..” She paused, unsure of how exactly to word her thoughts while respecting what Akira would probably want to say himself. “After we thought you’d died..he found an old puzzle book you had worked on, and found some phrase written in it. I didn’t know about this until after, but he searched all over town trying to find anyone who knew you who could tell him what it meant. This was before the publics cognition seem to forget about you and..the phantom thieves.” Akechi’s heart was beating fast, he felt like a cold weight was dropping in his stomach. Though strangely numbed at the same time. What did she make him take again? He decided to stand as Ann continued.

 

“This is our memorial for you, Goro.. He set this up when we moved in together a few years back, and every year we celebrated your birthday, left cake in front of your picture, and i would kinda eat your slice at night after he’d gone to bed. Just so he wouldn’t have to throw it out, with the feeling of like finality you know?” She pointed at the carefully wrapped package laying in front of the frame. It was a blown out photo of him, and what looked like half of Akira cut out. Looking at it made him feel..strange. He was hardly paying attention to what Ann was saying now, fighting the tears threatening to tease the corners of his eyes. He reached out and ran his fingers across the wrapping paper of the box. Feelings began to feel as though a jar would shatter in his heart.

 

“I bought that...soon after everything happened, apparently it turned out to be what you’d written in that puzzle book, and Akira’s had it wrapped as a gift ever since. ‘It’s just in case’ he used to tell me. Part of me still thinks he’s in denial, yeah?” She wrapped her arms around his waist, pulling him flush against her. Her hair tickled his nose and he lost himself in his own thoughts more while she talked.

 

“You hurt him Goro.. You hurt all of us and did some fucked up things. But, try to remember what we told you back ‘there’. How none of that mattered, how we wanted you back with us and that we wanted to help you. Well, Akira’s the one who needs some help now.” She nuzzled her face into the side of his neck. “So much has happened Goro, and i’m not saying everything is suddenly going to be unicorn shit and sparkles, but like..” She pulled away, holding Goro by his shoulders. “I don’t think either of you can really start to heal until you get that closure from one another. You know what I mean?”

 

He was stunned, full brain halt, all services down, error 404. A faint memory of that time from the engine room in his head, and voices he had convinced himself were screaming in anger at him began to turn into the reality that had been. Of the phantom thieves telling how they each related to him, begging him to come back with them and that he didn’t have to do it all alone. It..made more sense he supposed, than the delusion of anger and poison he had convinced himself was real. The photo, the incense, Ann. “Does he really, care still, you think?” He had meant to think that more than say it, but it was for the better that it came out verbally.

 

“Yeah, Goro. I know so. I think we’ve all had a very long and rocky road, these past five years. I can’t tell you how everything will go, or that it’ll go well at all at first.” She paused, looking out towards the window briefly in thought before continuing. “But I know that, if you run away from this, I really will never forgive you. And that like, you owe it to Akira in every way possible to be right here. For him.”

 

“For Akira, huh..” Akechi stared up at the ceiling,letting it all sink in. Maybe this was the best possible outcome after all. If..he could help so that Akira was no longer suffering so much because of him, then maybe that was what he had lived for. Funny, he thought as a sparse few tears rolled down his cheek. Even after all these years, his heart still loved Akira. Even if it hadn’t been until after all was said and done that he’d finally come to terms with what he’d felt for the boy. Fate was cruel like that he supposed, who would love someone that had tried to kill them not once, but twice? Friendship would be asking too much, even if it was apparent he cared in some capacity for the once detective.

 

Akechi was really just ready to rip all of this off like a bandaid fused to the skin, revealing the ugly festering wound beneath. Finally face head on those skeletons turned demon in the closet so to speak. Oh and dear lord was he going to sleep for three days straight after today, the meter was absolutely empty and running on fumes, so what was one more dumpster fire for the day? He did have just a few questions still though.

 

“Hey, Ann?”

 

“Yes Goro?”

 

“I'm afraid this might be a bit of a stupid question, so I do hope you'll humor me a little here. Are you and Akira..dating..? You live together-mmmph!” He was cut off by Ann’s lips crushed against his for the briefest of moments, pulled away just as fast as it had come, mortified from his head to his feet. But Ann just stood there looking contemplative.  
  
“Hmmm, it just as I thought..” What. “What.”

 

Ann beamed and giggled as she shouted, posing dramatically like a super model. “Still Gay!”

 

This broke the Akechi. Suddenly he was on knees laughing so hard it hurt, Ann joining him soon after, the two of them clutching their sides in pain they laughed so hard.  It went on so long they thought maybe this was how they die, curled on the floor laughing their asses off. But it soon trailed off, leaving only calm silence. Akechi was the first to speak, getting to his feet and offering his hand to Ann who took it immediately. “You’re..you’re ridiculous.Thank you..”

 

The sound of the door unlocking stole both of their attention.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to try to format this one a little differently from the last chapter, sorry if it's odd in places.

**Author's Note:**

> You can visit my twitter at the same handle as my AO3 name if you want!
> 
> Here are some songs I used to help motivate me through the first part of this fic.
> 
> You'll want to turn on english captioning!
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CjA4W6BJeU
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40dJS_LC6S8


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